Phil and Claire Foster (Steve Carell and Tina Fey) are a married couple from New Jersey with two children and whose domestic life has become boring and routine. Phil is a tax lawyer while Claire is a realtor. They are motivated to reignite their romance after learning that their best friends, Brad (Mark Ruffalo) and Haley (Kristen Wiig), are planning to divorce to escape the married-life routine and to have more excitement in their lives.

To avoid the routine that had become their weekly "date night", Phil decides that he will take Claire to a trendy Manhattan restaurant, but they cannot get a table. Phil takes a reservation from a no-show couple, the Tripplehorns, despite Claire's misgivings. While eating they are approached by two men named Collins (Common) and Armstrong (Jimmi Simpson), who question them about a flash drive they believe Phil and Claire stole from mobster boss Joe Miletto (Ray Liotta). Phil and Claire explain that they are not the Tripplehorns, but the men threaten them at gunpoint. Not seeing any other way out, Phil tells them it is in a boathouse in Central Park.

At the boathouse Claire pretends to search; while Collins and Armstrong's backs are turned, Phil hits them with a paddle and escapes with Claire on a boat. At a police station, Phil and Claire talk with Detective Arroyo (Taraji P. Henson) but discover Collins and Armstrong are also detectives, presumably on Miletto's payroll. Realizing they cannot trust the police, they decide to find the real Tripplehorns. They return to the restaurant and find their phone number.